292 OPEEATIVE SUEGERY. 



the operator -will be careful in performing this operation in a 

 cleanly manner, taking care that not only his hands and knife 

 are clean, but that the dirt from the soil does not gain entrance 

 into the wound, unfavorable results are not to be feared. In 

 cases where tetanus follows castration, it is always due to a want 

 of the above mentioned precautionary measures, the wound 

 being infected by the germs of that disease. (See tetanus.) 



Many operators, especially in Europe, use elaborate meth- 

 ods in performing this very simple operation, all of which, how- 

 ever, with the exception of clams for scrotal hernia, of which 

 we shall treat later, are quite uncalled for and liable to produce 

 the very results which they are supposed to guard against. For 

 instance, the method of searing the cord with a red hot iron, 

 while the operation is necessarily antiseptically performed, the 

 wound sloughs from the cauterization, requiring a longer time to 

 heal without acquiring any material benefit to the subject. 



Crapping. 



Which consists in tightly binding the scrotum between two 

 pieces of wood, until it sloughs off, is a slow, tedious process and 

 decidedly antiquated and cruel. 



CyCngr and Hashing. 



Is virtually the same as trapping with the exception that a 

 cord takes the place of the wooden clams. It has nothing but 

 its antiquity to recommend it. The French method, termed 

 Bistournage, is exceedingly severe and cruel to the subject. It 

 consists in so manipulating and dislocating the testicles that 

 their blood supply is shut off, the organs gradually withering 

 away; a ligature is necessary, tightly tied around the scrotum 

 below the testicles, which are forced upward into the inguinal 

 canal. This process is mentioned here simply as an illustration 

 of a simple operation made complex and painful by ignorance, 

 or an inborn desire to produce unnecessarj^ suffering on dumb 

 brutes. 



